Untitled (Alicia in the Pool) 2006

Curator: Oh, there's such an eerie, nostalgic sweetness to this image! Editor: Indeed. What we're viewing is Angela Strassheim’s “Untitled (Alicia in the Pool)," a C-print photograph dating from 2006. The composition immediately strikes me, particularly the contrast between the figure in the foreground and the industrial backdrop. Curator: That's it, the background almost swallows her. It's this feeling of being watched, not threatening exactly, but like she's performing childhood for an audience that isn't quite there. She is a kid pretending at adulthood—or the reverse. It gets me right in the gut! Editor: Absolutely. Observe how Strassheim has constructed the image. The whiteness of the swimsuit and the sheet on the clothesline visually connects the figure to a state of almost unsettling purity or emptiness. Curator: Yes, the starkness amplifies it. The laundry, those looming grain silos in the distance... they're so relentlessly ordinary, it almost hurts. Is it supposed to suggest impending environmental doom? Editor: Perhaps. One could argue that the grain silos symbolize industrial dominance. The plastic pool, combined with the youthful figure, creates tension with this reading of modernity. I see an exploration into how industry disrupts supposedly idyllic, natural, or innocent scenes. The reflective ball mirrors our gaze, positioning us to witness what's vulnerable. Curator: Maybe, and maybe it's just about that odd collision of a lost childhood, playing out in the shadow of something way bigger, that she can't name yet... like all of us. Either way, the longer I look, the more it shakes me. It's good to be shaken. Editor: Strassheim, through masterful employment of color, form, and composition, provides viewers much to unpack, making her work a rewarding venture in artistic inquiry. Curator: For sure. And a poignant kick in the imagination!